Welcome!

I have been both immensely blessed and challenged by life, as would be expected by anyone still spluttering after more then half a century. And truth be told, the older I get, the more blurry that line becomes between challenge and blessing.

It has taken me this many years to figure out that hope lies in accepting life on life’s terms, whether I like it or not. Liking reality is not a prerequisite to accepting it.

Life reveals itself as magnificent when I let go of the tight grip of my expectations. The more I allow life on life’s terms to flow through me, the more awed I am by that which evolves through me, as me.

The Chinese believe the second half of a woman’s life is a time of liberation, a time where a woman no longer prioritizes her obligations to others, and instead rediscovers her self. They call this Second Spring because it is symbolic of new life and a shift in opportunity; far more poetic than any comparable western nomenclature.

This has been a time of inspiration, expansion, discovery and finding my authentic and unapologetic voice. Where my life is today is such a radical departure from the life I had 4 years ago, I am still whirling from the reconfiguration, and yet I know, with every fiber of my being, this is what I am meant to be doing.

The gateway swung open as a result of my understanding that pleasure and power were synonymous in a woman. The moment I aligned with the depth of my pleasure was the moment I awakened the depth of my purpose. This knowledge ignited a singular exploration at this juncture of my life: the immensity of what it means to be woman.

Through my projects I hope to support women in becoming fully embodied, unleashing their feminine essence, wielding the power of their feminine heart, and birthing all aspects of their lives, just as I have and continue to do.

Sometimes it is harder for us to claim our greatness then it is our flaws. I feel this is especially true for women.

This is an invitation to champion female empowerment. It’s time to shift, no matter what age or stage, into our full potential and embrace all the opportunities that come with it.

Browse around, comment and reach out if you wish.

I welcome support, if you feel called to.

Love, Catherine O.

Special thanks to the beautiful women who dedicated their time and expertise. Amy Fox, Grace Van Dien, Ryann Werner and Katie Shaw, without your midwifing skills, this site would still be a figment of my imagination. I love you all.

Foundation

Mission:

The Catherine Oxenberg Foundation is a human rights organization dedicated to reclaiming female sexuality from the cultural shadow.

Our focus is on empowering women to lead more embodied lives with the belief that increased aliveness in turn leads to increased engagement and activism. We seek to unleash a wider force of women’s values, vision and voice into the collective culture. Our deepest hope is to inspire more of the feminine principles and qualities of leadership such as inclusion, collaboration, mediation, and joy into the world.

We champion issues essential for the enhancement of female health and wellbeing – emotional, physical, and sexual – through the areas of research, rehabilitation and restoration.

Women have the right to accurate science-based knowledge about their bodies, they have the right to maintain complete sovereignty over their bodies, and they have the right to preserve the sanctity of their bodies.

Our Beliefs and Activities

The Foundation takes a panoramic approach to this somatic transformation, from providing foundational sexuality programs, to helping women to explore and heal their own sexual function, pleasure and possibility, to advancing the fields of sexual and relational research, to directly and courageously addressing the underbelly of sexual abuse, trauma and violence that is so tragically woven into our cultural fabric.

The full freedom we aspire to for women’s embodiment and sexual health can only become a reality in an environment where women are free from subjugation, exploitation and abuse.

Thus our mission calls us to both the light and darker dimensions of this issue, on the one hand helping women to learn about and fully claim the pleasure and self-healing aspects of sexual expression and helping couples to more fully embrace the sexual and physical aspects of their love, to addressing the symptoms of sexual repression and aggression in society such as sex trafficking, pornography and genital mutilation. To pursue the former without engaging the latter would be to pursue personal growth without a larger eye to collective pain and horrific immediate social tragedies, and to pursue the latter without also being a stand for what is every woman’s birthright would be to address the grim without offering a guiding light of what is possible in a fully expressed and wholesome sexuality.

Our deepest intention is to help support women to live lives filled with safety and personal sanctity first and foremost, to find embodiment and empowerment, to make a meaningful contribution to the cultural architecture shaping society and to provide legacy for generations with the important information and practices needed to create a healthy and flourishing relationship to female sexuality.

Research:

The foundation’s goal is to provide an evidence-based picture of female sexuality.

43% of the female population of the United States has been diagnosed with FSD: female sexual dysfunction. (National Institutes of Health)

Either this alarming statistic is evidence that almost half of American women are suffering from an epidemic of sexual anorexia or it is evidence of an epidemic of ignorance amongst the medical community driven by a masculinized view of sexuality and the medicalization of sex.

It is shocking that female sexuality is still a hidden area of medicine and lacks an honest, expert scientific approach. What becomes disturbingly obvious is that, as stated by Dr. Meredith Chivers, “doctors don’t have a baseline for what normal female sexuality looks like.”

The lack of scientific funding in this area of research only reinforces an insidious and persistent sexist bias.

Female genital anatomy and the physiology of female sexual function have been scientifically neglected.

Female genital mapping is consistently misrepresented in medical diagrams and textbooks, and in school sexual education and human biology classes.

Most often, the organs that pertain to female sexual pleasure are omitted. The clitoris, after taking a 500-year sabbatical from medical textbooks, only resurfaced in the 1980’s. A 2005 report from the American Urological Association states, “the anatomy of the clitoris has not been stable with time as would be expected. To a major extent its study has been dominated by social factors.”

The clitoris is analogous to female sexual pleasure; therefore, the lack of knowledge about it, and the entirety of the female erectile network, amplify inequality for women. Worse this negligence costs women the chance to fully inhabit their own skin, enter the stream of life force that a healthy sexuality enables and fosters and as a result to stay a far too passive voice in shaping our society at large.

The truth is that until science, and women, themselves, begin to take an accurate inventory of the female body, women remain susceptible to being exploited in both overt and covert ways.

The most popular cosmetic surgery amongst women today is labioplasty – aka vaginal rejuvenation – a form of genital mutilation involving surgical removal of

parts of the inner labia to make vulvas resemble those of pre-pubescent girls. The likelihood that those women were given an informed choice is zero. They were undoubtedly ignorant that they were amputating precious erectile tissue, potentially restricting their ability to experience pleasure and damaging the delicate neural network that extends from their clitoris.

Rehabilitation:

We will provide funding for rescue and long-term rehabilitation for victims of sex trafficking in the USA, and collaborate with other agencies across the country to strengthen the network of outreach and support. We will document all aspects of our rescues, the victims’ and witness testimonies, and our investigative efforts, for the purpose of developing awareness, building a body of evidence that can be used to prosecute traffickers, and helping to provide an accurate picture of the magnitude of the problem nationwide.

Integral to bringing sex trafficking to an end is the need to tackle other underlying factors. There is considerable evidence that the current opiate epidemic, which caused the United States government to declare a State of Emergency on July 31, 2017, plays a significant role in contributing to an increase of sex trafficking. Traffickers are using the desperation that accompanies addiction to their advantage, fueling a criminal enterprise that creates enormous profits from the exploitation of the vulnerable – primarily women.

“Traffickers learn that it’s very lucrative to sell a girl,” Lisa Goldblatt Grace, director and co-founder of My Life My Choice, a Boston nonprofit focused on combating the commercial sexual exploitation of adolescents. “Drugs you can only sell once; a girl you can sell over and over again.”

SC State Attorney General Alan Wilson called the global human trafficking scourge a “$150 billion a year criminal enterprise,” second only to drug trafficking.

The Department of Homeland Security defines human trafficking as a “modern-day form of slavery involving the illegal trade of people for exploitation or commercial gain.”

“There are more human slaves in the world than at any other time in history. Almost every country in the world is affected by trafficking.” – Robyn Causey, a licensed social worker, considered a national expert in human trafficking, domestic violence, corrections and vulnerable youth.

The United States is a destination and transit country for human trafficking into the sex industry.

According to the Department of State, there are approximately 244,000 American children and youth that are at risk for sex trafficking each year.

“This affects every community, every state, and every level of income. These are truly modern day slaves hidden in plain sight.”- Kim Biddle – MSW, founder and executive director of Saving Innocence.

Typically, the recovery rate is less than 1% of the actual trafficked population. The Department of Justice has confirmed that care facilities specifically designed to support trafficked children can give shelter to less than 100 of them. F.B.I. policy is to place these rescued victims into juvenile halls, which sends the message to these children that they are criminals.

In the words of advocate Greg Hannley, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Soba Recovery Centers, “The victims of sex trafficking I come in contact with are usually victims of substance abuse, therefore to really make a difference, we need to rescue these victims from the grips of both the humans and the substances that hold them hostage.”

Restoration:

According to UNICEF, 200 million women alive today have suffered FGM, female genital mutilation. Female genital mutilation is still remarkably common — mainly in Africa, but also in some countries in Asia and the Middle East and in immigrant communities in Europe and the U.S.

The procedure, which involves removing or cutting all or some of young girls’ outer genitalia, is a painful and traumatic experience for the up to 3 million girls and teens who get it every year. It’s also dangerous, according to public health groups that adamantly denounce the practice. But it’s still regularly performed because of the cultural or religious belief that women should not be allowed to experience sexual pleasure. As recently as April 2017, two 7-year Minnesota girls were subjected to the barbaric procedure by a Detroit doctor.

Reconstructive surgery, aka clitoral restoration, has been available in France since 2004 and is covered by national health insurance. At least one U.S. doctor also does the surgery, but few patients are able to get their insurance companies to pay for it. Furthermore, most of victims are unaware the surgery even exists.

The reconstructive surgery was pioneered by French urologist, Dr. Pierre Foldes, but very few doctors have been trained to perform the procedure.

There is an urgent need to abolish this barbaric practice, and in the interim, to train and subsidize doctors to perform the reconstructive surgery so that victims can regain some semblance of a normal life.

Foundation Advisory Board

Daniel Amen MD
Psychiatrist and founder of the Amen Clinics.
Speaker at TEDx, on “Change Your Brain, Change Your Life,” and on “The Most Important Lesson from 83,000 Brain Scans.”

Barry Komisaruk PhD Rutgers University Board of Governors Distinguished Service Professor Associate Dean of the Graduate School
Adjunct Professor, Dept. Radiology, New Jersey College of Medicine, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey

James G. Pfaus, PhD, IF Professor and Concordia Research Fellow Past President, International Academy of Sex Research Fellow, International Society for the Study of Women’s Sexual Health Center for Studies in Behavioral Neurobiology Department of Psychology, Concordia University Montréal, QC Canada

Nan Wise, PhD
Licensed Psychotherapist
Certified Sex Therapist, AASECT
Certified Relationship Specialist, The American Psychotherapy Association
Assistant Research Professor, Psychology, Rutgers-Newark
Fellow, The American Psychotherapy Association
Fellow, The National Board for Clinical Hypnotherapists
Board Certified Diplomate, The American Board of Examiners in Social Work

Affiliations

The International Society for the Study of Women’s Sexual Health (ISSWSH), the International Society for Sexual Medicine (ISSM), the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality (SSSS), the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists (AASECT), the Sexual Medicine Society of North America (SMSNA) the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (CAMFT), and the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (AAMFT).

Books

Coming soon: CAPTIVE

GALLERY BOOKS TO PUBLISH “CAPTIVE” BY CATHERINE OXENBERG

NEW YORK, January, 2018 – Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, will publish CAPTIVE: A Mother’s Crusade to Save Her Daughter From a Terrifying Cult by Catherine Oxenberg, it was announced today by Jennifer Bergstrom, Senior Vice President and Publisher. In this harrowing memoir, Catherine Oxenberg reveals the personal and riveting account of losing her daughter to a cult, and her fearless mission to save her.

In 2011, Catherine joined her daughter, India, at a leadership seminar for a leadership organization called NXIVM. Her 20-year-old daughter was on the threshold of building a new company, and they both thought this program might help her achieve her dream. But quickly, Catherine saw a darker side to what appeared to be a self-help organization designed to help its clients become the best versions of themselves. She watched in horror as her daughter fell further and further down the rabbit hole, becoming brainwashed by the organization’s charismatic leader. Despite Catherine’s best efforts, India was drawn deeper into the sinister organization, eventually joining a secret, “elite” sorority of female members who are ordered to maintain a restricted diet, recruit other women as “slaves,” and are branded with their leader’s initials.

In CAPTIVE, Catherine shares every parent’s worst nightmare, and the lengths that a mother will go to save her child. Featuring interviews with past members of the controversial group, and experts in the field of cults, Oxenberg attempts to draw back the curtain on how these groups continue to lure in members. She details her continuing journey to try and reach her daughter, to save her from what she believes is a dangerous, mind-controlling cult.

“Catherine Oxenberg is on a mission that no parent would ever want to be on. Her book is a gripping account that readers will not be able to put down.” said Bergstrom.

“I pray that my daughter wakes up soon. I will be here with open arms. By writing this book, I am doing everything in my power to prevent this from happening to others,” said Oxenberg.

Catherine has done interviews about her daughter’s story with the New York Times, Megyn Kelly Today, People, 20/20 and others. Since those appearances aired, there have been further developments in the story that Catherine will detail in the book.

Catherine Oxenberg is an actress best known for her role as Amanda Carrington on the hit primetime soap opera Dynasty. She got her start as a model before making her acting debut in The Royal Romance of Charles and Diana. Oxenberg is the daughter of Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia, making her a royal descendent in her own right. She currently lives in Malibu, California.

Catherine’s co-author, Natasha Stoynoff, is a New York Times bestselling author and award-winning journalist with over a dozen books to her credit.

GALLERY BOOKS is an imprint dedicated to publishing a variety of must-read books on a wide array of topics. Launched in February 2010, Gallery is designed to showcase established voices and to introduce emerging new ones-in both fiction and nonfiction genres. Some of Gallery Books’ bestselling titles include The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo by Amy Schumer, The Woman in Cabin 10 and In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware, Binge by Tyler Oakley, Selp Helf by Miranda Sings, Five Presidents by Clint Hill, The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky, and Love Anthony by Lisa Genova.

ABOUT SIMON & SCHUSTER
Simon & Schuster, a part of CBS Corporation, is a global leader in general interest publishing, dedicated to providing the best in fiction and nonfiction for readers of all ages, and in all printed, digital and audio formats. Its distinguished roster of authors includes many of the world’s most popular and widely recognized writers, and winners of the most prestigious literary honors and awards. It is home to numerous well-known imprints and divisions such as Simon & Schuster, Scribner, Atria Books, Gallery Books, Pocket Books, Touchstone, Adams Media, Threshold Editions, Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing and Simon & Schuster Audio and international companies in Australia, Canada, India and the United Kingdom, and proudly brings the works of its authors to readers in more than 200 countries and territories. For more information visit our website at www.simonandschuster.com

Coming Soon…Venus Unbridled / The Pleasure Body

I have gone from neophyte to futurist in the realm of sexual evolution in the short span of four years. My education has left me convinced that all women are physiologically designed orgasmic beyond their wildest dreams, not just a lucky few. We just haven’t been given a viable map yet. So I have taken it upon myself to chart the way. It is time to illuminate the world’s greatest untapped resource – female sexual energy. This book, a fusion of memoir and instructional, is my contribution.

Preface – Vag-Om!

Sometime in the early 90’s, I happened to be hosting a women’s group in my home in Beverly Hills. We were all seated cross-legged on the floor, in a circle, when suddenly the solid bleached pine slats melted beneath us into an enormous liquid rolling wave that traversed the entire room. I was awestruck. Witnessing this earthquake solidified my belief in quantum physics. I watched matter transform into a wave and actually saw how waves and particles, energy and molecules, could be interchangeable.

Reflective of the sheer poetry of life, this type of polarized surface wave in seismic vernacular happens to also be called a love wave, after Augustus Edward Hough Love, a German scientist in the early 1900’s.

In retrospect, I recognize the symbolism and significance of that event, heralding a time in the distant future when I would experience that same wave in my own body – my own love wave. And how that would in turn awaken my passion to guide women to awaken that same wave within themselves.

On April 17, 2013 I became heaven incarnate for an entire week, with aftershocks that sustained for months. I actually experienced quantum mechanics alive in me, as orgasmic waves moving endlessly through my body, transmuting my particles into the vibrating energy of indescribable bliss and love. This was without doubt the most profoundly spiritual, transformative experience of my life. Orgasm rewired me into the most authentic expression of myself. Orgasm brought me home. I knew then and there that all of Creation is expanding in blissful orgasmic waves and that I had somehow managed to plug into that universal principle. I understood orgasm for what it was designed to be – the ultimate evolutionary alchemical ingredient to catalyze matter into greater love.